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Kentucky Sheriff says Florida is killing his Citizens
• Margate Commissioners one hearing closer to Moratorium on city pain clinics
Tuesday,
March 23, 2010
Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program takes effect in December, which lawmakers hope will bring some relief to the problems caused by the proliferation of pain clinics in South Florida, states a report by Florida State Attorney, Michael J. Satz.
“Until Florida gets off the pot and does something about this problem, they’re just killing us all,” said Sheriff Terry Keelin of Boyd County, Kentucky. “They’re killing our citizens. It’s a mess.”*
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City of Margate Commissioners recently passed the first of two actions aimed at slapping a moratorium on new pain clinics in Margate. Accidental deaths, overdoses and the unfettered dispensation of pain pills in Broward County has federal and local law enforcement agencies, Satz report in hand, engaging the help of municipal governments across South Florida--and in Appalachian states Kentucky and Tennessee--with the hopes of curtailing the negative impact pain mills have on the health and welfare of Americans and their families along the U.S. east coast.
By early 2009, 38 U.S. states had enacted legislation implementing a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and the Sunshine State wasn’t one of them. As a result, South Florida quickly became the preferred destination for the traffickers, dealers and users of black market pain medication.
According to drug policy think tank the Media Awareness Project, the Florida pill pipeline has carved a depressing path through Appalachia, with Kentucky law enforcement officials declaring the abuse of pain medications a worse problem in their region than addictions to cocaine and crystal meth.
“We have families breaking up, and people dying and people losing their jobs,” said Sherriff Keith Cooper of Greenup County, Kentucky, “It’s sad now that it’s so routine.”*
Statistics found in Satz’s interim Grand Jury report are shocking, and time will tell if Florida’s new Prescription Drug Monitoring Program will work over time. Questions are being raised as to whether the Program will be properly funded or will indeed act as an effective deterrent to pain medication abuse.
*Media Awareness Project
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